Heater/mixers for manufacturing flavored products are well known in the art. However such mixers typically have a heater box permanently attached to a frame. The heater box typically is either of a first type having a gas burner to produce a flame to produce the heat or of a second type having an electric heating element, such as infra-red, to produce the heat. This can lead to various problems, such as in the manufacture of the heater/mixer, or when one desires to substitute a gas burner heated heater box for an electrically heated heater box, or vice versa, on an existing heater mixer.
For example it is difficult if not impossible to convert an electrically heated mixer to a gas flame heated mixer, such as when the mixer is being moved to a site which has only gas, or vice versa. It also requires manufacturers of mixers to manufacture, and stock, both electrically heated and gas flame heated mixers.